Glenda Bailey-Mershon

I come from the mountains, from a textile mill-working family. My mother and her mother could weave a knot that was barely visible, but which held under great stress. I've tried to apply their skill with threads to words. Here is my wider world view. Thanks be to all the ancestors who brought me here.

The World TWIRLS along–or not!

It amazes me that we can feel so abandoned by a game that generates random letters. That a logarithm rolling along produces near-depression when it is no longer available. The game TWIRL is no longer functioning on Facebook, and many users, including myself, have pleaded with the "admins" to fix it. They are not listening, apparently. Meantime, how did we get so hooked?

My, how I have been conditioned by Social Media. Truthfully, I have a hard time imagining my life without checking it at least twice a day. What do I most love? Here's my list:

1. I love that my nieces and nephews will actually drop me a line or even a few photos now and then, when they'd never think of writing me a letter or calling me, because, well, they're young, and busy inventing their lives.

2. I love that my friends and I can so easily post photos, stories, other items that we can share at large, thus spurring a potential sunami effect. I didn't know that Joanne was an art lover until I posted a "What's your favorite masterpiece" to someone else, and she responded to me with a Kandinsky–one of my "favs!" And now another friend, who has never invited me to a museum, undoubtedly because she thought we shared only a love of literature, has responded in kind. The serendipitous wonder of eavesdropping is reinforced.

3. The opportunity to get to know, at least a little, writers whose work I admire, is not to be missed. When we trade garden plants or book lists, or fill in rote formulas like "The ABCS of ME" with personal details, I learn a little about what is behind their words. It makes me think that random and trivial, isn't.

4. Knowing the latest of what is affecting my writer world. Readings, events, upcoming publications, conference workshops, show up here first, if in a somewhat spotty fashion. Anyway to put your ear to the ground is a plus, right?

5. Okay, I love my farm in Farm Town. I created it from scratch. It has a large farmhouse surrounded by lemon trees, a small artists' cottage in a meadow of flowers, a market stand for produce sales, and all the cherry trees a girl could want. It's my world, and I spend about twenty minutes a day in it and feel refreshed. Who cares if it's a fantasy?

6.I love not knowing what will show up in my feed today, but trusting the people whom I have "friended" to steer me straight to the heart of their day.

7. I love all the new language this communication revolution fosters, words like "admins" and "favs" and "friended." Words that don't make sense elsewhere except in the loopy, bopping world of the latest fads.